Alaric's full-length debut shows the bandmembers' multiple band backgrounds fusing all the more into a singular beast, leading on from their promising initial efforts. It's part and parcel of a larger reclaiming of "goth" as an outgrowth of spindly, outraged punk, something that had a crypto-existence in things like the Gravity label roster in the 1990s but wears a freak flag all the more openly in a new century. "Eyes" begins the album on a suitably dank touch, the combination of acoustic and electric guitars sounding like something from Burning from the Inside-era
Bauhaus, tense as much as it's mysterious. If anything, though, the singing of Shane Baker calls to mind Robin Proper-Sheppard's work in the underrated
God Machine, a biting, echoed clearness that's part anger, part anguish, a bit unchanging throughout the album but still powerful enough. His tinge of declamatory edge definitely succeeds as a clear anchor, which combined with the musical variations at work touches on a sense of shifting reference points that feed into the band's work, from
Christian Death and
Killing Joke to less obvious avatars like Red Temple Spirits. Part of the whole evil charm of the album definitely revolves around a classic doomy/echoed bass sound; matched with a bit of death march drumming -- as can be heard on the perfectly titled "Your God," something you'd swear
Michael Gira had already used somewhere -- it's pretty addictive. Meanwhile, "Animal" cranks up the pace musically while the vocals continue to howl and sway, while "Laughter of the Crows," in its combination of, indeed, crow sounds, bass sound, and spindly screeching guitar, shows that the line of doom-trudge descent from Black Sabbath to
Ministry to the present is alive and well. ~ Ned Raggett